(Thomas POV)
The dull throb of three separate impacts vibrated throughout my body. I was surprised more than hurt. I brought my hand to where one of the impacts occurred and felt something metallic barely piercing the skin. When I pulled it out and looked at it, it looked like a mushroomed bullet. Someone fucking shot me!
Leah shouted, "Sniper in the woods, I'm on it." Then shifted and shot into the tree line.
Something charged at me from the garage, low and fast. Only to be intercepted by Edythe, she didn't try to match strength but tripped the attacker up. Amazingly fast, the attacker was back on his feet, hissing at Edythe.
He changed target and started to rush at Edythe, who held her ground until he was only a step away. She then looked him in the eyes and said "STOP!"
The attacker stopped just like she told him to. Edythe then reached out and pulled his head from his shoulders. The almost casual decapitation came with the sound of stone being torn in two.
That's when it finally registered that the attacker was a vampire. My mind was still rattled from being surprised…and fucking shot.
I stood up and shook my head as I absently pulled the other two mushroomed bullets from my chest. A voice called out from the woods.
"Damn boy, three rounds of 7.62 from a rifle and you just brush them off. She told me it wouldn't work, but I had to try. Timmons… Johns… You get the torturous bitch. Caldwell, take the little shit, bite him if you get a chance, hearing him scream in pain from that will be sweet music before we pull him apart."
Another shot rang out, and sparks flew from Edythe's shoulder, followed by the whine of a ricochet. While she was distracted, a vampire dropped from the roof, catching Edythe by surprise. He rammed into her back, making her fly into the passenger side of my truck, crumpling the passenger door, and rocking the truck up on two wheels for a second before crashing back down.
Another vampire charged from around the side of the house and was on me before I could do more than raise my arm. He shoved his head forward, gnashing his teeth and growling at me, trying to reach my neck.
With my left arm holding back my attacker, I again pulled on my fire, with the intent of making the shift into my hybrid form. My body started to change, and I could feel my strength increase to match and then exceed that of my attacker. Once the shift was complete, my half human half tiger maw opened and roared out a challenge as I struggled to my feet, lifting my attacker into the air.
The vicious newborn realized that he couldn't reach my neck, so then he fiercely bit down on my forearm. More in outrage than pain, I roared again. Then I reached around with my other hand and tore him off my arm before I returned the bite twofold, crushing his stony head in my teeth.
I threw his remains on the ground and turned to help Edythe, who was now facing two vampires. She had pulled herself from the wreckage that was my truck and had taken a fighting stance.
Her two opponents rushed her at the same time before she managed to catch their eye and shout at them, "Wait, I am on your side!"
One of the two paused, but the other went low with his attack and tried to take Edythe's legs out from under her. She danced aside, dodging by centimeters, then she looked at the other vampire, "Help me, someone must have done something to him to make him attack a friend like this!"
That vampire nodded grimly before rushing forward to try to pull his partner into a bear hug to calm him down. Once he had him contained, Edythe pulled his head off and then, in a flash, pulled the compelled vampire's head off as well before the death of his partner could break his compulsion.
"God damn, you are something else, boy. I didn't think you would fight this hard. Your bitch is irritating as hell, too. Good thing I have more men."
Five more vampires rushed the house as the seeming leader shouted more orders.
"Davis, Tanning, you two take the cunt, don't look her in the eye. It seems her powers need eye contact. Head, Twitch, and Smith, take the freak. Separate and box him in, remember to cover each other.
They moved like they'd drilled it.
Not like a normal newborn pack, feral, chaotic, all hunger and impulse like we had been trained to expect…but in a loose wedge that fanned out, spacing themselves like they knew exactly how far the others could reach. One went wide left, one wide right, one kept center to force me to commit.
I could feel the difference immediately.
These weren't just newborns.
They were newborns with discipline.
My claws dug into the porch boards as I dropped low, letting my hybrid center of gravity settle. The bullet holes in my chest throbbed, warm and angry, the skin already knitting together over the damage. Venom in my forearm burned where I'd been bitten, sharp as a wasp-sting made of acid, but the fire inside me drowned it under something hotter.
I bared my teeth and breathed out slow.
They expected a straight fight.
They expected me to lunge forward or directly at one of them, leaving me open for the other two.
"Box him!" one of them snapped, Twitch maybe, voice too eager, and they tried to collapse the space, one feinting in, the others angling to take my flanks.
I didn't give them the line.
I launched sideways instead, springing off the porch rail and hitting the ground in a rolling crouch that carried me under the reach of the center vampire's arms.
The one on the right…(Smith, maybe? I was just randomly assigning them the names called out.) corrected fast, trying to cut me off.
Good.
That meant they were thinking.
Bad.
That meant I couldn't just rely on them being stupid.
A blur flashed in my peripheral vision…Edythe.
She was already moving, fast enough that human eyes would've missed her entirely. Davis and Tanning split around her like they'd been told, heads angled away, eyes fixed somewhere above her shoulders or on her hands instead of her face.
Smart.
Edythe's mouth curved anyway, sharp and pleased.
"You think that helps?" she murmured, almost conversational.
She moved into them instead of away, slipping into that narrow seam between two attackers where most people would panic.
"STOP."
Not shouted like before.
Not thrown like a command.
Just… spoken, with perfect timing, one of them had to glance in her direction to avoid colliding; this was a feint, she was messing with their heads.
Tanning was fooled; he didn't freeze, just stuttered. Losing half a second.
Edythe took his head off in that half second, then pivoted as the other one lunged in behind her, trying to exploit the opening.
Edythe didn't even look.
She let him commit, then dropped and spun, taking his legs out from under him the way she'd been watching Jasper demonstrate, turning his momentum into a fall.
He hit the ground.
She was on his back instantly, gripping his head with both her hands.
The snap of stone echoed across the yard.
I refocused on my fight.
Smith lunged. Head-on.
Maybe he thought the "freak" would be slower than a vampire.
He found out he was wrong when my claws met his forearm and tore deep enough to bite into stone.
He hissed, pulling back, surprised at pain. Probably the first of that sensation since turning.
That surprise got him killed.
I surged forward, grabbed him by the throat, and slammed him into the ground hard enough to crater dirt and moss. Before he could recover, I drove my jaw down and crushed his face, teeth grinding stone like it was chalk.
The sound turned my stomach.
I didn't have time to dwell.
Head and Twitch hit me together, exactly like the orders, one high, one low. The high one went for my arms, while sinking his teeth into the right side of my trap muscle. The low one tried to hook my legs and put me on the ground so they would be able to control me.
I snarled and twisted, throwing my elbow into the one that bit me. When it impacted, he was forced off, and I felt his teeth tear my flesh as he flew back.
My twist brought my knee into a perfect angle to nail the one that hit me low, forcing him away as well.
It bought me a breath, and during that breath, there was another gunshot. I kept my eyes open to see where the impact would be, but didn't see anything. Then it hit me, Leah.
I shouted, "Edythe, go help Leah!"
I saw her hesitate for a split second, but the thought of not knowing just how many Leah was fighting made her mind up. She flashed into the woods.
The two newborns I was fighting didn't even look her way as she left, keeping their attention on me, looking for any opening. It still freaked me out a bit at how non-newborn they were acting. One kept his body low, like he was in a runner's stance, looking for any opportunity to take my legs.
The other one was taller, broader of shoulder, like a striker. He shifted forward, trying to get in range to hit or grab me. I really didn't like this guy, maybe because his face was covered in my blood. That thought made my forearm and back throb in pain, my adrenaline trying its best to keep the sensation at bay.
He shuffled a little closer, and internally, I smiled. He was underestimating my reach, now I need to angle this right… I made a quick side hop toward the house that just happened to place the striker guy between his buddy and me.
Able to ignore protecting my lower half for a moment, I fully focused on the striker and reached out with my left hand and snagged his wrist. As soon as I tightened my grip, I yanked as hard as I could. With the sound of rocks rubbing together, his left arm tore off at his shoulder. I put his arm in both my hands and wound up to use it like a baseball bat and crush his head with a swing when I was slammed into from the side.
Fuck, the only way I could have been hit from that angle was if there had been another guy on the roof of the house. Damnit, how many of them are there?
As I was sliding across the damp grass, I tried to keep my momentum going so I could come out of this slide in a defensive stance. When I finally managed to right myself, I found I was facing three vampires in a wedge formation yet again. Well, at least this time one is missing an arm, I told myself.
My breathing came in gasps, and my muscles burned from the fight. This was taking more out of me than any sparring I had done with Jasper and Emmett.
The voice in the woods called out again. "On me. Pull back and regroup."
I could see frustration on a couple of their faces, their newborn emotions riding high at the moment until another shout came.
"Move it, soldiers. Now."
They all straightened just a little and started to pull back, keeping their eyes on me.
No way I was letting them get away, I pulled on the fire again and instantly shifted to my full dire tiger form and sprang at them. But before I could get through the air, they had started to retreat faster. I kept them in sight, but also kept my eyes open for a possible ambush.
Just ahead of me, I heard their steps stop, so I slowed down but kept moving forward. In a small clearing, I found the three I had been chasing along with another man I assumed was the one shouting orders.
I pushed some of the fire out and resumed my half-tiger form so I could speak. "Fucking… Johnny!!!"